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Senior Nutrition Research Coordinator

New York City

  • Organization: IRC - International Rescue Committee
  • Location: New York City
  • Grade: Mid level - Mid level
  • Occupational Groups:
    • Public Health and Health Service
    • Nutrition
    • Scientist and Researcher
    • Managerial positions
  • Closing Date: Closed

Requisition ID: req8528

Job Title: Senior Nutrition Research Coordinator

Sector: Health

Employment Category: Fixed Term

Employment Type: Full-Time

Open to Expatriates: No

Location: New York, NY HQ USA

Job Description

This role can be based in New York, NY or Dakar, Senegal.

In order to achieve our commitment to transform the way malnutrition treatment is delivered and simplify treatment protocols, the Research & Innovation team, Health Unit Nutrition Team and IRC country programs have been engaged in several initiatives to generate evidence for the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a simplified protocol to treat acute malnutrition. The Senior Nutrition Research Coordinator will directly support ongoing operational pilot studies in West Africa to ensure high quality research implementation and monitoring, cross-country learning and engagement with regional stakeholders. S/he may also support other new operational research in additional countries as necessary.

 

Specific Responsibilities:

 

The Senior Nutrition Research Coordinator will deliver technical assistance in-person and remotely to country program colleagues to support field implementation of operational research in West Africa. S/he will support research protocol development and implementation; data collection, monitoring and evaluation; data analysis; process documentation and deliverable tracking; staff training and technical oversight. S/he will also coordinate closely with regional nutrition stakeholders (e.g. UNICEF, WFP, ECHO, other implementing partners) in Dakar as the primary HQ-level contact for IRC operational research in West Africa. Remaining time will be spent on supporting regional advocacy, other Nutrition Technical Advisors (TAs) and countries on implementation of similar pilots, cross-context learning, development of program guidance and other internal initiatives at the discretion of their supervisor. The Senior Nutrition Research Coordinator’s specific responsibilities are as follows:

 Building technical capacity of country program staff to ensure ongoing operational research program quality:

  • Conduct technical training and ongoing technical coaching for country program staff engaged in operational pilots; support in-country research managers develop critical thinking research skills within field research teams

  • Support country program staff with recruitment and onboarding of key research staff

  • As requested, share cross-context learning with country program staff across IRC; coordinate and plan with country coordinators and Nutrition and Health TAs the technical assistance country programs receive

Research project delivery support:

  • Assist Nutrition Advisor and country teams finalize research protocol and data collection tools; review research design and protocols for partnership agreements, consultant-based work

  • Co-design and supervise data collection, entry, and analysis as needed

  • Contribute to development of analysis plan and overall project work plan; coordinate with country team to develop and maintain timeline for regular communication and project/reporting deliverables

  • Write, submit and manage ethical approval applications to national and international IRBs

  • Review and share program-specific tools / resources / curricula and work with Nutrition Advisor and Research and Innovation team to contextualize and adapt global and country-specific materials

  • As needed, support Nutrition Advisor and country teams to set up new operational research based on learning and tools from  West Africa

Monitoring and Evaluation of pilot studies

  • Ensure country programs conduct quality data collection in adherence with research protocols by providing technical guidance, capacity building, standardized guidance and on the ground support when possible

  • Improve quality of monitoring in operational pilots by rolling out/optimizing the use of Commcare, synthesizing pilot study program data and developing lessons learned across operational research sites

  • Work with country program colleagues to help analyze data to inform periodic review and course correction as-needed

  • Build standard monitoring toolkits to enable uptake of simplified approaches in other contexts

  • Coordinate and contribute to the development of external project reporting and manuscript preparation

    Regional stakeholder engagement and coordination:

  • In close coordination with the country program, the regional Nutrition TA and Nutrition Advisor, engage with key stakeholders in Dakar, and countries of operation for the implementation and coordination of the research

  • Help country program define approach to teaming / partnering with other organizations
  • Participate in coordination efforts within the health unit, R&I, and with other technical unit and departments in IRC as required
  • Provide necessary management support to any direct report

    Other:

  • Represent the IRC in academic fora, donor meetings, inter-agency working groups, and various global/regional fora as assigned by the supervisor

  • Work with Research & Innovation project team on other internal initiatives

  • Build and/or maintain good partnerships additional stakeholders and consultants engaged for the research 

  • Work with the communications team on documentation and dissemination as necessary

Qualifications

Education: a Master’s/post-graduate degree in Public Health Nutrition or equivalent. Participate in ongoing training courses and share knowledge and skill sets within R&I and the Health Unit. 

Work Experience:

  • At least 5 years of experience in managing or providing technical assistance, leading or coordinating nutrition research studies in humanitarian or post-conflict settings

  • Must be at an expert level in the community-based management of acute malnutrition

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:

  • Demonstrated technical expertise in at least one of the following areas: survey design and implementation, program evaluation, field-based academic research, operational research

  • Experience conducting primary data collection in challenging environments

  • Data analysis skills, both quantitative and qualitative strongly preferred

  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills; demonstrated patience and effective leadership in communicating broad and detailed topics to diverse audiences  in person and through written communication

  • Superior internal and external communication and coordination capabilities; experience coordinating multiple partners and stakeholders

  • Experience managing donor funded projects and grants; including budget development and oversight, monitoring and evaluation systems, and technical input to proposal-budget development and donor reports

  • Able to work with remote, multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary teams

Language Skills: Fluency in English and French required, verbal and written

 

Working Environment: 50-75% travel required.  This position will be based in Dakar or New York with frequent travel to/within West Africa (e.g. Mali, Chad, CAR) and some travel to other countries.

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